Buddha in the dryer

As I was pulling laundry out of the dryer the other day, I found the Buddha.

OK, I’ll explain:

I have a small wooden oval trinket that works a little bit like an old fashioned locket.  About the size of a large walnut, you pry open the two flat halves to find a intricately carved sitting figure inside – the Buddha.

This little Buddha belonged to my Mom.  A nearly life-long Episcopalian, she embraced mindfulness meditation as a practice after her cancer diagnosis in 1995.  I’m not exactly sure what this Buddha represented to her, but it was important enough to her that it was with her belongings when she died.

Sometimes when I have do things I’m nervous about, I like to carry or wear something that belonged to my Mom to remind me of her courage.  Before a presentation I had to give last week, I put the little Buddha in my pants pocket as a worry stone.  The presentation went well, and on I went with my week.

So, finding the Buddha in the dryer meant that I’d forgotten about it in my pants pocket, and had now washed – and dried, at high heat – a tiny fragile wooden locket that meant a lot to me.

But, somehow, it was fine.  A small chip of wood had flaked off the place where it opens, and the wood seemed like it could use a light coat of oil, but otherwise it survived in tact.

This seemed like a message of some kind: about resiliency of precious items, being more mindful, about finding treasures where you least expect them.  But my first reaction was to laugh: the Buddha in my dryer!  I wondered if this is what the people who found the imagine of Mother Teresa in a cinnamon roll felt like.

Finding humor, mindfulness, resiliency, treasures in the dryer – how about that?!

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How do everyday events help you stay on your path of making a difference?